


To Hell and Back

by history_inspired



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Dysfunctional Family, Greek gods, Hades - Freeform, M/M, Thanatos - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:35:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24098941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/history_inspired/pseuds/history_inspired
Summary: Alexios watched Brasidas die.Alexios did the only thing he could do: pray.His prayers were heard, but now he has to face the consequences.(Rating/tags may change)
Relationships: Alexios/Brasidas (Assassin's Creed)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 30





	To Hell and Back

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! This is my first ever fanfic. AC: Odyssey got me feeling some sort of way. Anyway, enjoy reading! (I'm not sure how many chapters there will be, I'll update as I write)

Brasidas. 

Alexios watched in horror as Deimos made her way towards Brasidas, having swatted multiple Spartan soldiers away with ease. Alexios knew he stood no chance; not only was Deimos already stronger than him, but the battle had been waging for a while now, and he was growing weary. Brasidas locked eyes with Deimos - Alexios’ sister - and charged. Alexios watched it happen as though it were in slow motion. Deimos blocked every blow of Brasidas’ beloved spear without breaking a sweat. It was all muscle memory to her. Alexios watched as Deimos punched Brasidas square on the nose, blood flying, and caught his spear mid-air. And finally, Alexios watched and she took that very spear and impaled it up through his neck, the spearhead emerging through his skull. Alexios felt his breath leave his lungs. He thought he might never be able to breathe again. The battle around him waged on, but it was muted, dulled. His vision became blurred, yet he could see Brasidas’ bloody corpse crystal clear. 

With a rage he had never felt before, he charged at Deimos, Kassandra, his sister. She blocked his blow with her sword and glanced up at him with a smirk on her face. 

‘You take everything so personally.’

All Alexios could do was stare at her with thinly veiled fury in his eyes, until he heard the familiar shot of an arrow fly through the air and hit Deimos in her back. As she fell to the ground, he saw the archer: Kleon. Alexios saw him mouth shit before running away like the coward he always was. 

With fury still in his eyes, he followed Kleon.

He followed him until he had nowhere else to go. Kleon begged for mercy, as Alexios expected. Alexios didn’t give it to him. He had felt some sort of twisted satisfaction as he saw Kleon writhe in the pool of water under Alexios’ foot, frantic and pathetic, but when he finally turned still Alexios felt a devastating emptiness in his heart. He turned back towards the battlefield, his mind empty.

He walked back to the battlefield slowly, trying to prolong the inevitable. Then he saw him again. Brasidas. 

Alexios stopped in his step, his breath hitching. Then he started walking to him again, faster this time. By the time he had reached Brasidas, he had almost broken into a sprint. All Alexios could do was stare in disbelief. Brasidas, the man who had joined him in the Monger’s warehouse like he was sent by the gods themselves, the sun scintillating off his armour and the head of his spear. Brasidas, a man who was one of Sparta’s best soldiers but had the kindest eyes Alexios had ever seen. None of this mattered now. Brasidas was dead. 

As much as Alexios wanted to remain reserved, a flood of emotions came across him like an inexorable force as he fell so his knees, his legs not being able to carry the weight of his despair any longer. A choked sob escaped his lips as he put his hands upon Brasidas’ body and forced his eyes closed. Tears ran down his cheeks and his body heaved with each muffled weep. Alexios placed his forehead gently onto Brasidas’ chestplate. This couldn’t be real. It couldn’t be real. He had so much life left, there was still so much more work to be done. In the back of his mind, Alexios noticed that Deimos’ corpse was nowhere to be seen, but he pushed it away. He would deal with that later. 

Alexios lifted his head back up and stared into Brasidas’ eyes. They were glazed over, unseeing. They no longer held the sparkle which was always present in them when Brasidas was telling a joke, a story, a speech. Every passing second felt like knives jutting into Alexios’ heart, yet he could not look away. 

For the first time in his life, Alexios wanted to pray. He wasn’t sure if he believed in the gods, but he would have done anything, anything to keep Brasidas alive. And now that Brasidas was dead, this was the only thing he could think to do. 

So Alexios prayed. He clasped his hands together, still resting on Brasidas’ chestplate, and prayed until his tears finally ran dry, until the sun had started to set and the familiar sounds of the night started to echo from the forests. He prayed until he felt his surroundings start to disappear, the ground beneath his feet fade, the sound of waves cease to exist. All Alexios could hear were the thoughts in his head. 

Bring Brasidas back. 

Alexios repeated this like a mantra. He would have done anything. He would have gone into the underground himself to bring him back if he could. 

‘You know, it didn’t work out that well for Orpheus,’

Alexios whipped around to the source of the noise. It was a noise that couldn’t be blocked out, that demanded to be heard. It brought a shiver down Alexios’ spine; he had never heard a voice like it. 

But Alexios saw nothing apart from the lifeless bodies and shadows around him. Did he just imagine it?

‘You didn’t imagine it, Alexios.’

‘Who’s there?’ Alexios retaliated, the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck standing up. That voice. He’s sure it could have driven men mad. 

The voice chuckled as though it could hear what Alexios was thinking. Maybe it could. 

‘I have heard your prayers, Alexios,’ 

And with that, the lifeless bodies around Alexios were suddenly not so lifeless anymore. One by one they rose, many of their bodies distorted by broken bones and missing flesh. Alexios watched in horror once more as even Brasidas’ body rose, taking the spear with him. 

‘What is this?’ Alexios shouted, his panic growing by the second. 

‘I am Thanatos,’ the voice said. It seemed to reverberate through Alexios’ bones, echoing in his chest. ‘God of death. I heard you, Alexios. I believe we can come to a… compromise.’

The corpses all turned their heads to look at Alexios. Some bodies were facing away from him, and Alexios heard the snap of bones as the heads slowly swivelled around, planting their eyes on him. And gods, their eyes. They were black as night, even the whites of their eyes. It was like looking up into the sky, a deep abyss, and if Alexios stared too long he felt the abyss start to consume him and his very soul. 

Alexios could feel the divine presence of a god inside each and every corpse. It was overwhelming. He struggled to breathe once again and felt a bottomless pit in his stomach. He felt like he had been paralysed by Medusa, struck motionless. 

The bodies stopped moving when they had all finished facing Alexios. Now they were just staring, unblinking. Hours may have passed without Alexios even realising it. Finally, he inhaled, but the air felt cold as it reached his lungs despite the evening being warm. 

‘Please… leave the bodies alone,’ Alexios whispered. 

Alexios watched as they all crashed back down to the ground, but he caught Brasidas as he fell, lowering him down to the soil as gently as he could with the spear still impaled in his skull.

As soon as he reluctantly let go of Brasidas, Alexios’ surroundings started to fade into nothingness. The still setting sun seemed to disappear, along with the ocean, the trees, the battlefield. Alexios turned frantically in disbelief as he tried to grasp at the ground beneath his feet, but even that was starting to fade away. 

‘What is happening?’ Alexios shouted.

‘I’m taking you to a place we can talk,’ Thanatos replied. And then finally, once everything had faded, Alexios was alone in some sort of void. The corpses were gone, but so was everything else. The waves crashing against the shore, the wind whistling through the trees… Alexios could not hear these things anymore. 

Instead, Alexios saw a figure. The figure was tall, much taller than Alexios, but also much slimmer than him. In fact, the figure seemed to be almost skeletal, but it was hard to tell with the thick black robes enveloping its body. Slowly, the figure turned to look at Alexios, almost like how the corpses did back on the battlefield, and its sunken eyes were also fully black. Its skin was as pale as death, with sharp cheekbones looking like they could pierce through the almost translucent skin at any moment. 

‘Alexios,’ Thanatos said. The way he said Alexios’ name caused a shiver to run down his spine. He said it so gently, but it was tinged with a hint of darkness that Alexios couldn’t ignore. ‘I’ve come to make a deal.’

‘Can you bring Brasidas back?’ Alexios asked immediately, hope coating his voice. 

A pause. 

‘I can.’ 

Alexios knew there was going to be a price. He didn’t care. He would do anything, anything at all. Gods, he would even trade his life for Brasidas’ if that was what it took to bring him back.

‘I do not wish for your soul.’ 

‘Then what do you want?’ Alexios shouted, growing impatient. ‘Just tell me!’ 

Another pause. Alexios was really growing tired of these pauses. 

‘I know what you do, Alexios. You are a misthios. You run errands for people, whatever they may be. I require your services. It would be handy having a misthios of my own.’ 

Alexios was confused. Was that it? 

‘Surely there’s a catch,’ Alexios said. ‘What would you have me do?’

‘No catch, Alexios. No trick. No deceit. Just do what I say whenever I ask.’ 

Alexios noted how Thanatos avoided answering the latter question. But if it could bring Brasidas back, then Alexios didn’t care for what he had to do. 

Thanatos smiled. 

‘That’s what I like to hear.’

They stood in silence for a moment, almost bordering on awkward. What do you even say after you’ve negotiated a deal with the god of death? Alexios decided to speak up once again. 

‘How are you going to bring him back?’

Thanatos was still smiling, but his smile widened ever so slightly.

‘It’s very easy to return a soul to the land of the living. There are just rules in place to prevent it from happening. But I have decided to make an exception today, as you can see.’ 

‘Why?’

‘I have my reasons.’ 

And with that, Thanatos disappeared into the void in a blink of an eye, and Alexios returned to the battlefield. The corpses were no longer being puppeteered - in fact, it looked like they hadn’t been moved at all. There was one corpse that was missing, though. 

Brasidas’. 

Alexios looked around, his heart almost beating out of his chest. He didn’t want to believe it in case it wasn’t real. What if he had just hallucinated all of the previous events? But if so, then what happened to Brasudas’ corpse?

‘Alexios?’

Alexios pivoted on his feet and saw him. Brasidas. He looked in bad shape. His usually tan face was pale and was blanketed by a sheen of sweat. Blood was pouring from multiple wounds on his arms, his legs, his nose. But most importantly, he looked alive. 

‘Brasidas,’ Alexios half-whispered, not being able to believe his eyes. He was elated. He really did see Thanatos, and he had kept his word. 

Alexios ran towards Brasidas, who looked like he would fall over at any moment, and wrapped his arms around him tightly. Brasidas hissed in pain, and Alexios immediately released him, apologising. His hands remained on Brasidas’ shoulders. 

Brasidas furrowed his eyebrows, detecting Alexios’ strange behaviour. 

‘Is something wrong?’ 

Alexios smiled, eyes watering every so slightly. 

‘Not now.’

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter done! Hopefully you enjoyed it. I definitely enjoyed writing it. :)


End file.
